Psalm 2
Once again, two types of people are contrasted in this psalm—those who submit to the Lord’s authority and those who do not. The ones who do not are those who have come to believe that submission to God is akin to slavery: “‘Let us break their chains,’ they cry, ’and free ourselves from slavery to God.’” (vs 3)
There have probably been times when all of us have had these sorts of thoughts. In fact, it’s easy to view God as this guy who makes all the rules—rules that are just designed to curb our fun. Somehow, subconsciously, we believe that the closer we come to God, the more freedom we’ll have to give up, and the further we go from God, the more freedom we acquire.
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That kind of thinking is a condition of our sinful nature.
Later in this psalm, we discover what happens to those who want to “break the chains of slavery to God”—they end up broken (vs 9). While those who submit to God’s authority find themselves blessed: “What joy for all who take refuge in Him!” (vs 12)
This is the choice: Blessed or broken. And God wants us to be the former, not the latter.
I used to think that it was God who would break us for breaking His law. But I’ve actually come to understand that that’s not the case at all. In fact, I have thought for some time that God’s laws cannot be broken. They can no more be broken than physical laws—for instance, the Law of Gravity. Instead, when we ignore them, we are the ones who get broken—just as it doesn’t end well for someone who leaps off the Empire State Building without a safety net.
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God doesn’t want us to get broken. That’s why He has revealed, at such personal cost, the path to blessing. And the only path to blessing lies in submission and obedience to the authority of God. He wants us to do what He says—not because He’s on a power trip, but because what He says actually leads to life.
P. T. Forsythe said, “The purpose of life is not to find your freedom. The purpose of life is to find your Master.” Make sure you spend your life finding the one Master who wants you blessed, not broken.